New Study Finds Gay, Lesbian And Bisexual Groups Report Worse Physical And Mental Health A new study published in the Journal of Sex Research looked at bisexual people’s health experience in primary care in English. “The study was part of a larger study where we used data from the General Practice Patient Survey (GPPS) from England across a few years to track whether disclosing/reporting of sexuality had changed over the years,” study author Carrie Llewellyn told us. “We found from this part of the study that reporting of being straight (heterosexual) was declining year on year and hence identifying as lesbian, gay or bisexual was increasing.” [More]
New Study Reveals People With Ongoing COVID-19 Symptoms Show Bigger Cognitive Deficits A new study published in the Lancet looked at the effects of COVID-19 on cognitive performance in a community-based cohort. “Many people report ongoing symptoms after COVID-19, including brain fog and problems with concentration, memory and attention,” study author Dr. Rose Penfold told us. “Previous research has shown that some of these people perform worse on cognitive testing. However, most of this research has been done in hospitalized patients who had more severe infection.” [More]
Reading In Childhood Beneficial For Mental Health And Wellbeing In Adolescence Children who read for pleasure experience better mental health during adolescence as well as superior performance in cognitive tests. Research published in Psychological Medicine found that roughly 12 hours of reading per week was the perfect amount associated with an improvement in brain structure. [More]
New Study Looks At Preterm Birth And Parental Psychiatric History A recent study looked at paternal and maternal psychiatric history and risk of preterm and early term birth. It was a nation-wide study using Swedish registers. “It has been known for some time that women who are clinically anxious or depressed are more likely to deliver a child prematurely,” study author Michael E. Silverman told us. “Indeed, considerable evidence now exists showing a relationship between various psychiatric illnesses and the likelihood of delivering a premature infant.” [More]
Laughter Really Is the Best Medicine - Especially In The Workplace Ever heard that laughter is the best medicine? Now science backs it up. Researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK have found that both laughter and humor are important tools that can impact wellbeing, particularly in the workplace and in health related settings. [More]
Limiting Social Media Use Improves Psychological Wellbeing and Reduces Anxiety and Depression Cutting back on social media use can improve psychological wellbeing. Researchers at Iowa State University found that students who limited social media use to just 30 minutes a day has lower scores for depression, anxiety, loneliness and the fear of missing out. [More]
The Importance Of Emotional Support Animals A recent article published in the Journal of Professional Psychology, Research and Practice looked at emotional support animal assessments and the importance of creating a standard and comprehensive model for mental health professionals. “This is the third in a series of articles that address emotional support animals and the appropriate role of professionals certifying these pets for their patients,” researcher, Leisl Bryant told us. [More]
New Study Highlights The Importance Of Supporting And Affirming Families For Black LGBTQ+ People A new study published in the Journal of Family and Community Health looked at parental sexuality disclosure, discrimination, and depression among Black sexual minority men and Black transgender women. “There were two main goals of our study,” study author, Rodman E. Turpin told us. “First, we wanted to identify the relationship between discrimination and depression among Black sexual minority men and Black transgender women. Discrimination experienced by these populations can include social and structural racism, homophobia, transphobia, and more, so we used a comprehensive measure of discrimination for our study.” [More]
Is Social Infrastructure Tired To The Emotional Well-Being Of Seniors? A new study published in the Journal of Rural Sociology looked at the built environmental and social and emotional support among rural older adults and whether there is a case for social infrastructure and attention to ethnoracial differences. “In this study, we were interested in determining if and how older adult social and emotional health is associated with social infrastructure availability in rural contexts,” study author Danielle Rhubart told us. [More]
Can Reading Increase The Mental Health Of Teens? A new study published in the Journal of Psychological Medicine looked at early-initiated childhood reading for pleasure and its associations with better cognitive performance, mental well-being and brain structure in early teens. “I and my co-authors wanted to understand the effects of reading for pleasure in young children on brain structure, cognition, school academic achievement and mental health,” study author Barbara J. Shakahian told us. “Some of the previously published literature suggested that there should be beneficial effects on cognition, but there had not been a very large scale study, with over 10,000 adolescents before on all these measures together.” [More]